Thomas English

The ariel on the Titan HD seems integrated into the body of the transmitter. Do you think it will work well on its side (flat on its front) on a battery plate on the bottom of the sled.

There is an issue with getting the WEVI Cam wave on the correct plate in 24v setups. It is covered elsewhere. Essentially to generate 24v sleds put the batteries in series. So 24v are going through your second battery and if you happened to put your CamWave on that plate then 24v are also going through your Camwave. The camwave is built for 12v so it fries. http://www.steadicamforum.com/index.php?sh...8&hl=series The new transvideo HD transmitter (Titan HD) will be rated for both 24v and 12v. Best Regards Thomas

Thanks guys, your advice as per usual is really most informative. Are your man-makers solid or hollow I wonder? On your advice and for the sake of my G70 arm that I love (in a weird way). I am going to undersling a J-Braket. I just need to find a collar to go onto the steadicam Master portion of my post since it is going to go in upside down. i.e. at the top of the attached picture. In this document: Steadicam_Access_Brchr_0307-1.pdf "The steadicam accessories brochure" There is a Locking spinning collar for ultra/MS Arm post 250/7211, I wonder if this could be the one since everywhere else I search collars are designed for 5/8th posts. Anyone have any better suggestions for a safety/locking collar? In a moment of stupidity I did notice that the 5/8th post is 16mm ish and the MS/Ultra part is 19mm. It would be perfect if I could just use a steel ARRI 19mm camera bar and a 19mm to 15mm dog bone (a strong one) at the bottom. Thus enabling me to use a 19mm dogbone at the top as a collar and as a handle of sorts. I did try shoving a 19mm bar down the gullet of my G70 but she weren't happy and did protest; demonstrating my sheepish ignorance. I will stick to plan A.

Yeah, I had an 18 inch post made up for me once. I even used it with a 435 and it really was not right. I have since heard from qualified sources that 12 inches is the most one should go. I wonder if anyone could confirm that. I think the advice was that it was not the post that would snap but the castings at the top of the arm that were structurally less secure with these torsions. I have since binned the 18inch post.

I use this J-Bracket out of convenience. I have a G70 arm with a 5/8th post (MK-V). I like it because I can simply slot it in in seconds without changing anything on my post and have my gimble really low. Unfortunately it does flex a little and on 35mm packages I dare not use it. Do your J brackets flex? If so is it a cause for concern? I suspect I am being too ambitious with that distance and I need to get a 6 inch steadicam to 5/8th post, pop it in upside down and a ciniwidgets setup. Any advice? Thanks

Check out on his showreel http://www.vimeo.com/7446449 timecode 1:25 to 1:30 . I swear he jumps over the bonnet of that red car whilst wearing the rig.

Great work, Sometimes I couldn't work out if he was using a lightweight or a weight caged chunkier rig. My conclusion though is that he is a really good operator! There are photos of him and his rig on http://www.vimeo.com/user508179 . Someone more qualified in identifying steadicam silhouettes will be sure to come in here. Thomas

The extender from Innovision looks great and useful in certain applications. From the lengh of the sled and batteries it does not look too unfeasible in weight. I wonder if there would be any sensible ways to get that camera further forward and the rig "safer" away from the danger. I have spent the last few weeks on a series of Burberry commercials. They wanted details from the steadicam, close up stitching etc. So I have spent pretty much the whole time on a 75mm or a 100mm at s16 sized gate (i.e. 150mm to 200mm). It is very satisfying when you are nailing the shots and we all like photography that borders towards "macro" but wow its hard for focus! especially on running shots where your leading the talent. Off course wide open on superspeeds T1.3 due to the framerate and at about 4 feet away. I don't think that Take 2 or Fava rental had ever had a steadicam operator ring up and request Cinetape for running shots. I went down the route of trying to hardwire Cinetape into the follow focus but did not really get anywhere so stuck with my trusty Bartech. It is possible on the C-Motion. Still, it is not my department and sharps did a spectacular job without Cinetape or nothing. In music videos we are always piling on the longest lens in the armory for effect but really we know we might not get much and the bits we do get look lovely. I think it is a different kettle of fish when over a 200mm (35mm gate) gets put on in drama. The pressure is on. Well done Rob! Shame I can't buy you a beer this winter to congratulate. Maybe next winter hey! Pop it in the pot!

I have had a stream of phone calls recently with producers doing proper budget stuff. The producer has offered me half my rate and just gone "thats all I have in my budget". And treating me like a greedy bastard for asking more. I know they are finding people to do it. Whats happening? Are we basically competing in their minds now with operators on flyers and Canon 5D's

I am going to make a decision over the next 4 months if I will stay with PAG or go with V-Lock. Is this TX an inter V-Lock tx ?

Sometimes its worth learning on a system that is a complete nightmare. $1500 dollars does not buy you much in this business and you will have fun but you will not make any money. Your best off spending a little extra and getting a pilot. You may make some money on little HDV shows and concerts. Either way, good luck

It is tough though. I think it has to be the 8700 euro version because of the number of 35mm jobs. Are video taps going to bother going HD I wonder? Do you reckon the full version is steadicam friendly. I suppose the reasoning is that everything has gone HD except commercials and feature films and they tend to have their own video village. There probably is no point spending the extra 4000 euros and peranently carrying the extra kilos on servicing short films and super16 music videos with digital wireless, they can have my modulus. I do not seem able to charge a la carte for wireless. Producers simply want to cut something all the time and for me cutting wireless is non negotiable. I prefer to have a more expensive package and the producer has to think less.

I have been using transvideo's UHF receivers for years for my Modulus. They get gaffered to C-stands at the start of the day and they love it. Send the whole unit up there. I am interested Chris, how much delay is there? For music videos where the director starts telling the artist off for not keeping synch. 4500 e for the HD lite, great. You can rely on Transvideo tech being solid, reliable and well worth the money. It can seem expensive at first but a few years down the line it obviously becomes very good value. So a transvideo HD steadicam monitor and an HD Lite it is. Better save up! Thomas

That is a really well explained post. Thank you very much. I assume this is true for MK-V rigs. Cheers

Thanks guys, I really appreciate your speedy response. I have been using the 4pin xlr for years off a lead acid battery. But I was specifically told by someone working at Arri nver to run the SR2 off Lithium batteries because I would blow up the main board. Hence why I have never done so. Agreed as well, it also flies better with an extra battery. OK, I'll just go and plug it in now. See what happens. I have 24 hours before call time. Erwin, well spotted! Thanks Thomas

I have an SR2 with a damaged battery spigot> i.e. there is only one connector left. I am shooting something this sunday, a freebie, all on steadicam. If I run out of sr2 batteries or the last connector dies/snaps I might risk it and try and run the camera from the rig. My Marrel bubble displays a battery monitor. Fully loaded with 2 fully charged Lithium pags it normally reads a maximum of what? 15.6 Volts If I only have the one battery onboard (pag lithium L95) and its a little used I reckon it will float below 15v. Can I risk running my sr2 at that volatge? Will it blow up? What is safe? Lets face it, I am also running a modulus Transmitter, a transvideo monitor and a Bartech follow focus. So there is plenty of load there to take the edge off a lively battery. Also the batterys will not come off the charger (there is not going to be a mains source for 20 miles). Can anyone sell me an old battery spigot for an sr2? Thanks a lot for your time.

It is heavy but not the end of the world heavy. As Eric says its very stable; to be honest you will really enjoy your operating on it: Smooth with stable motion control like stops and starts. I've never even attempted poor mans lowmode, I wonder if that would be ok. If you are going to practice like a loon; double up your practice one day and take a day off. or practice two days for a day off. Take a lesson from the weight lifters. If you train train train you'll just make yourself an injury. Take 1 or 2 days off before the shoot and remember that its all good fun!

I used to use these on my front mounted 3a vest but stopped on my Walter Klassen. I think they are cool but no substitute for good postural exercise.

Really I absolutely LOVE it. The O'Connor is a fantastic head but really the Atlas is so much sweeter.

Benjamin, Have you tried these shoes on? I often find that these full on out door shoes have very stiff soles and I like soles with a lot of flex like trainers so I can roll along the ground. I am interested in these as they could be the elixir of shoes we have all been looking for. Beach, for me is about protecting your ankle and being less concerned about sole roll. I wear HiTech Magnums. I like the idea of chain link fence but I reckon I would never use it unless it was super soft sand.

Try a gentle old ladies Iyengar but also go and see a good sports therapist. You don't want that problem aggravating.

As Charles points out if its going to compromise your work $430 is going to look cheap. How much was my Gorelock and I never get extra for having that to my old 3a bracket. So I bought a decimator, I keep it in my battery bag. I still ask for a Downconverter from production and use mine if theirs does not work and charge full whack for it. I have only ever done a couple of days when I felt the day was bodged compromise and they were ALWAYS because of a faulty/non-existing downconverter. Downconverters still terrify me! The other thing with RED operators and budget RED rental house downconverters is their power cables are crap. They bodge on that cheap sony connector when actually it requires quite an expensive sony connector that can twist and lock in. I have met quite a few RED downconverters in London where these unlocked connectors have damaged the soldering on the board creating a dry joint that only works with pressure in one direction or another. My reason for not having an HD monitor is that they are not bright enough. Unfortunately no longer true. Buy a Decimator. Cheaper than upgrading your monitor and buying a new transmitter.

With regards to Yoga, I recomend iyengar yoga. I used to do an hour of Astanga a day for all my 20's and the day I stopped having back problems was the day I gave up Astanga. Be careful with twists because we have a lot of muscles and can easily over push a twist. Iyengar yoga at a Dance school, in London there is Pineapple Gym, these tend to be aimed at people that need a proper session and abuse their bodies like we do. I literally just bought from Walter a back plate so I can use the rig on the other side. I feel its a compromise to have to have the lens on one side of your body especially in Don Juan. Yeah, practise on both sides. Swimming is a great way (front crawl) to stretch you back and strengthen. Dead lifts (done correctly) High reps low weight. However from your message it is not clear where the strength left you. Which muscles?

Get the most you can afford. I have done jobs on 3a arms when the camera body was unexpectedly way too much (Moviecam with anamorphics). I was physically lifting the arm up a lot but I got the shots. Get what you can afford and when a big job comes in you will have the showreel to convince a hire company or another operator to rent you a bigger rig. Get a 3a if you can but make sure you buy a Steadicam, MK-V or PRO. This way you have an upgrade path.

That is very interesting. Joe Dunton here in England has been talking about that for years. P+S Techniks will probably make it. It looks like it will fit my sr2 which is nice. I am hearing stories from rental houses here in the UK about the s16 cameras just not coming off the shelves. For my work I think the RED has taken half of s16's market share. This is further the the market share HD (varicams and sony900s) took 5 years ago. So there is a lot of bodies sitting out there. It's just if your going to shoot HD why waste gravity on all that extra metal and mechanics and why waste wear and tear (claw etc) on a camera to shoot HD. Also what happens if bodies get rinsed at HD and a year later someone wants to shoot film; anything could have happened in all that time. I would not feel confident.